


Labors and Dangers

by ElrondsScribe



Category: 18th Century CE RPF, American Revolution RPF
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, F/M, Inspired by Orpheus and Eurydice (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), bible reference, loosely
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-19 10:08:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29997768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElrondsScribe/pseuds/ElrondsScribe
Summary: After the sudden death of his beloved Maggie, Billy determines to get her back.
Relationships: William “Billy” Lee/Margaret Thomas
Kudos: 1





	Labors and Dangers

Billy wakes on a warm summer morning, and Maggie is cold and still beside him.

He screams, calls her name, begs her to come back to him. He cradles her in his arms and rocks her. He kisses her cheeks and wets them with his tears. But her eyes never blink, and her heart remains silent under his hands.

It’s only when he picks up her hand that he sees the black tree stamped on her palm: the mark of the underworld. In a moment, his grief changes to determination.

He can bring her back.

Hell had better watch out.

~oo00oo~

Washington’s eyes are hard as flint. “You may have Margaret or your freedom. I will not grant you both.”

Billy is equally resolute. “Freedom without my Maggie ain’t no kind of freedom, sir.”

“Very well,” Washington stands, goes to one of his bookshelves, rummages a bit, and pulls down an old book of chants. He pauses in the act of handing it over.

“Sir?” Billy labors not to look or sound impatient.

Washington purses his lips. “You know you are not guaranteed success in this endeavor.”

“I know that, sir.”

Washington hands him the book. “Good luck then, I suppose.”

~oo00oo~

The ritual passes in a blur; Billy is barely aware of his own voice as he chants. The sky turns dark, and dark clouds gather seemingly from nowhere. The wind picks up, and lightning flashes overhead.

Unmoved, Billy finishes the incantation, and the air before him rips like a curtain. Nothing is visible through the gap but darkness.

He ignores the deep dread that curls in his gut, and turns to Polly, who is holding his infant son. He kisses the baby’s cheeks and whispers, “I’m coming back with your mama, sweetheart.”

And he straightens, and walks into the rip.

~oo00oo~

It feels  _ wrong _ . He has a body, and yet he doesn’t. He can see with eyes he somehow knows are not real. He breathes with false lungs.

‘It’s an illusion to help you adjust to a world that isn’t really alive enough for you,’ says a gruff voice. Billy turns, finds himself on the bank of a jet black river. A boat sits on the bank, and a tired looking man stands beside it.

‘Charon?’ he asks uncertainly. The boatman looks like he could be one of the working men from the docks back home.

The boatman nods. ‘Get in.’

~oo00oo~

‘I’m sure you’re aware that releasing someone who died unnaturally is … complicated,’ says Hades.

Billy’s phantom jaw clenches. Hades looks like Washington — another illusion, Charon has told him; in this liminal space the gods appear to human visitors in the guise of people they know. It seems fitting, somehow, that Hades should wear Washington’s face.

(It’s more puzzling that the deity at Hades’ side, presumably Persephone, wears the face of the Marquis de Lafayette.)

“You wouldn’t release her at all if she’d died naturally,” he says, keeping himself from adding  _ sir _ with an effort.

Hades’ lip curls. “Very astute.”

~oo00oo~

Billy has nothing to offer Hades. He possesses nothing now that he’s used up his favor from Washington.

“Your child,” says Hades.

Billy’s phantom fists tighten in anger. “You’re not touching my child a  _ day _ before it’s his time.”

Hades wears Washington’s most unimpressed look. “What do you have to barter, then?”

“Myself,” Billy says without hesitation.

Hades snorts. “Like I haven’t heard that one before.”

But Persephone looks at him sharply. “You, who gave up an offer of manumission from one master, would sell yourself to another?” she (he?) asks, without a trace of Lafayette’s French accent.

Billy nods.

~oo00oo~

Seven earthly years Billy labors for Hades: he drives the souls of the dead that Charon doesn’t have time to get to. Turns out there’s a multitude of unlucky humans pressed into similar indentures, often for similar reasons.

The work is grueling: another benefit of being human in a liminal space, his phantom body can tire.

Hades seems to revel in the knowledge that Billy understands the significance of the seven years; he seems to want Billy to suspect a trick.

But when Persephone returns that last winter, she makes Hades honor the deal. ‘You’ve had your laugh,’ she says.

~oo00oo~

Hades puts Billy on the shadowed path back to the living world. “Don’t look back, or try to talk,” he says. “If she wants to follow you, she’ll follow you.”

Billy doesn’t trust Hades, but he has little choice, so he sets off. The road is rough, plunging into valleys and climbing mountains — can Maggie make it? He doesn’t know if she can climb. Or does she even care to try?

He wonders this as the valleys get wider and the mountains steeper. He can’t hear her behind him … should he? Or is silence that part of the trick?

~oo00oo~

After what feels like an eternity of dark silence, the light at the end of the road almost hurts his phantom eyes. Hope fills his phantom chest, and he climbs the last mountain so fast that his overstrained phantom knees give out on him. He has to crawl almost on his stomach for the last few yards.

He crawls into the light, his arms aching with exhaustion, and doesn’t stop until he’s sure he’s put the underworld behind him. Even then he doesn’t turn, doesn’t speak. He will sit with his back to the gateway forever, but he dares not —

~oo00oo~

Her arms are around him and she’s kissing him. “Oh my Will, you came for me!”

Billy twists around and pulls her into his arms. “‘Course I came for you, Maggie,” he says, staring up into her face, drinking in her beauty for the first time in seven years.

“Billy?” a voice calls, and Billy looks up. He and Maggie are half lying on the grass by the house at Mt. Vernon, and it’s Frank calling.

A small boy comes running out to greet them, and as one Billy and Maggie stretch out their arms for their son.

They are home.

**Author's Note:**

> Omg I wrote a 10x100! In one night too! If it reads like a fever dream, that’s because it is one.
> 
> I haven’t seen Hadestown and I don’t know the soundtrack, but I have been listening to the song ‘Way Down Hadestown.’ I love it so much! I was also kinda inspired by it: lines like ‘Mr. Hades is a mean ol’ boss / With a silver whistle and a golden scale’ especially made me think of Washington. (There isn’t any such thing as a good slave owner, but Washington wasn’t really even one of the nicer ones, the bastard.)
> 
> Wouldn’t you know, Lafayette apparently either had or bought a plantation house in France at some point, set all the slaves free, gave them education and options, and then proceeded to pay wages to the people who remained? That’s primarily what made me think of him as connected to Persephone. Plus, you know, Washette.
> 
> Oh yeah, in case you didn’t know, the seven years thing is in reference to Jacob’s agreement with Laban to marry Rachel. It’s a story Hades knows Billy’s likely familiar with, hence why Billy’s tense about it (Laban ended up cheating Jacob into working another seven years for him). He thinks it’s quite funny to make Billy work for seven earth years to get his wife back too. Har dee har, Hades.
> 
> Uhhh, I dunno, Polly’s Frank’s wife/Billy’s sister-in-law. I made her up, I have no idea if the real Frank Lee was married. Also! Apparently there’s an indication that Billy Lee had a child at some point (name and gender unknown).
> 
> Billy’s wife Margaret (whom I’m anachronistically calling Maggie again) did apparently get the grudging OK from Washington to join Billy at Mt Vernon, but there aren’t any records there of her ever living there. They keep pretty good records at Mt Vernon, so if Margaret had ever lived there, I think we’d know. Also Margaret was reportedly ill at some unspecified point. All of which to say, I think it’s historically possible she died either before or very soon after ever arriving at Mt Vernon.
> 
> Also a very clumsy reference to Billy’s knee problems later in life!
> 
> It’s not like everything’s gonna be okay, obviously. Seven years have passed by on earth; Billy at least is returning to slavery; his son doesn’t actually know him or Maggie yet. What becomes of them all? I don’t know.


End file.
